North Carolina native John Kitchin, better known as Slomo, is gaining fame beyond the reaches of San Diego’s Pacific Beach boardwalk.

He’s the subject of “Slomo,” a documentary about his decision to ditch life as a financially successful neurologist and spend his days roller-blading (often in slow motion) at the boardwalk.

Kitchin, 69, grew up on a dairy farm in Wake Forest and got his undergraduate degree at Duke University, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. He went to medical school at Emory University and later moved to San Diego.

“I’d say before Slomo, I became the typical, institutionalized, educated Western man,” Kitchin says in his North Carolina drawl at the film’s opening. “Frankly, I intended to work myself into oblivion and get old and die. ... But now, I experience myself like a tip of a great iceberg of consciousness.”

The documentary by Josh Izenberg has won several awards at 15 film festivals, including Best Short Documentary at Austin’s SXSW festival in Texas.

Skating brings him joy, particularly on a spiritual level, Kitchin says in the documentary. Watch “Slomo,” a New York Times Op-Doc, to get the full story.